The US vowed to eliminate in May all waivers granted to eight countries that allowed them to keep buying Iranian oil from November 2018 as part of the US campaign to increase pressure on Iran by cutting off their oil revenues.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that the US wanted to reduce Iranian oil exports to zero and had no plans to give any of the countries involved a grace period to comply with the sanctions.

Iran’s inflation rate is 51.4% for the first month of the Iranian year (March 21-April 20), according to the Iranian Statistical Center (ISC). This means that, compared with the same month last year, prices have risen by more than 50%.

The ISC also found that Iran’s inflation rate for the past 12 months was 30.6%, which is lower than the International Monetary Fund’s inflation estimate for Iran in 2018. However, there are two potential reasons for this. One, the IMF goes January 1 to December 31, while the ISC goes March 21 to March 20, and two, Iranian institutions usually underreport statistics that make them look bad, even if the ISC is more reliable than most.

London, 22 April - Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei has appointed Brigadier General Hossein Salami as the new head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), just days after the US placed the group on its list of foreign terrorist organisations.

In a statement on his website, Khamenei wrote: "Considering [Salami’s] capabilities and significant experience with different revolutionary responsibilities ... I promote [him] to major general and commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards."

In the early 2010s, relations between Iran and the European Union were strained because of the Iranian nuclear programme. In 2015, a solution was found in the form of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a binding agreement between the United Nations, the EU, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and Iran.

Amnesty International has demanded that the Iranian government stop harassing, arresting and imprisoning peaceful protesters advocating for an end to the “degrading and discriminatory” compulsory hijab laws in the country, as well as immediately and unconditionally releasing those already detained on this basis.

London, 18 April - Syria is facing a major shortage of fuel after Iran cut off credit to them in October under pressure from Us sanctions, according to Syrian government-controlled newspaper Al-Watan.

The paper reports that no oil tanker has come into Syrian ports in the past six months, according to the Syrian Oil Ministry, while the government-controlled regions in Syria are only producing 24,000 barrels per day, which is roughly 20% of what the country needs.

The US will continue to increase pressure on Iran, according to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday, however, he declined to say whether the Donald Trump administration would extend sanctions waivers on eight countries that import Iranian oil.

The US must act now to stop Iran taking over Yemen, according to political scientist Dr Majid Rafizadeh.

He explains, in a piece for the Gatestone Institute, that one of the Iran’s primary ideals is to export their malign revolution across the Middle East and, by extension, the world. The mullahs plan to carry this out by effectively taking over other countries, which they have already done with Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.

Although Iranian authorities provided assurances that he would not be tortured, the European Court of Human Rights has held that the extradition of a man accused of theft to Iran would breach Article 3 of the human rights convention.

The Strasbourg court provides guidance on the kind of assurances required from the state requesting extradition in GS v Bulgaria (application no. 36538/17). It will not allow extradition unless the assurance is both specific and trustworthy. In this case, GS was wanted for theft, but if he was convicted, he was at risk of receiving corporal punishment — seventy-four lashes. The Strasbourg court would not allow extradition, because it labeled this manner of treatment as torture. In accordance with past case law, it found that the possibility of acquittal or the imposition of a different sentence was not sufficient to dispel the real risk of torture.

London, 16 April - The US’s designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organisation formally came into effect on Monday, while the White House and Congress are divided on whether to extend the sanctions waivers granted to eight countries still importing Iranian oil.

For a long time, Muhammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, has been considered the go-between between the United States and Iran.

He has taken on a role that bridges the massive gap between the liberal West and the antiquated Iran of the mullahs. He is the perfect person to do so because he is very familiar with the United States after spending decades of his life there. He has naturally become fluent in English and understand subtilities that make his arguments more sophisticated. He can make Iran’s views sound less harsh with the right choice of vocabulary.

London, 14 April - According to reports coming out of Iran, residents of the flood stricken areas in the southwestern city of Ahvaz have come out in protest over what they call the Iranian authorities’ incompetence in dealing with the floods.

In videos published on social media, locals in the Eyn-e Do region in western Ahvaz — an oil rich province of Khuzestan — marched through the streets chanting, “they wanted to dishonor us, but we will not be dishonored.”

The ceasefire deal to end Yemen's civil war is collapsing as the various groups are fighting over how to implement it and aid groups are warning that a resumption of fighting would hasten Yemen's famine crisis and threaten 15 million people with starvation.

The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) has been dismissed by the Iranian Mullahs and their lobbies as insignificant and without serious following in Iran. However, the MEK has survived for decade and this is because it has extensive support – both inside and outside of the country.